As you probably know by now, Creekstone is having our long-awaited “Particularization Service” THIS SUNDAY, April 3, when we become an independent, self-governing congregation! During this service we will ordain and install our first elders, as well as install yours truly as Organizing/Founding Pastor. Rather than a morning gathering, the service will be at 4:00 p.m. Same location…
Month: March 2016
“A Message for Skeptics” – John 20:24-31
This is the final message in our Gospel of John study which was preached on Easter Sunday, 2016. Sermon Notes: Today is a message for skeptics… After all, this is Easter Sunday, which we know is not primarily about brightly colored eggs and bunnies, but rather is about the claims in the Bible that Jesus…
Gospel + Safety + Time
Thanks to my friend and fellow church planter, Chris Fogelsong, for this great “gospel equation” that he discovered in Ray Ortlund’s book, The Gospel. “The family of God is where people behave in a new way. I think of it with a simple equation: gospel + safety + time. The family of God is…
“The Super-Glue of Christian Unity” • John 17:20-21 (audio & notes)
Listen to the sermon audio: Sermon notes: Until his recent death, Lee McCarty was the most famous potter in Mississippi, if not one of the most recognized in the south and possibly the nation. Using clay dug from the Mississippi Delta, he created both functional and decorative pottery, some of which has even been featured…
What Women Really Want
After 24 years of marriage, I finally have discovered what women really want. This discovery took place as I was hand washing a pile of dishes that had accumulated in our sink over the past several days. Life has been hectic and our dishwasher is not playing nice. Not to mention that my wife has…
Did You Miss This?
Hello Creekstone friends, Last Sunday we talked about the persecuted church. But not the persecuted church we normally think of when we consider religious persecution—not the Middle East, or China or Sudan, but here in the U.S. Persecution? Here? The tide may seem to be slowly rising, but it is rising. We need to be…
A Tribute to My Son on His 18th Birthday
Traumatic is the word we use. When his heart rate crashed on the monitor, we knew something was terribly wrong—so wrong, that within moments, the NICU team had burst into the birthing room. A nurse soon climbed upon my wife, began pushing forcefully upon her swollen abdomen and commanded me to “get in her face…
“The Persecuted Church” • John 15:18-20
Listen to the audio: Read the sermon notes: Few of us who saw the image will soon forget it. Just over a year ago, a line of twenty-one Egyptian Christians dressed in orange jumpsuits, were kneeling on a beach near Tripoli in Libya, just moments before masked ISIS executioners dressed in full black beheaded them simply…
Does Andy Stanley Really Need to Apologize?
Apparently, Andy Stanley will be coming out with a video explanation this week concerning his “what did he just say” comments about large vs smaller churches. As a preacher/pastor myself, I know what it’s like to say something off-the-cuff and wish you could stick it back in your mouth. Andy Stanley is one of the best…
“The Elder Team” • 1 Peter 5:1-4
This is a special message delivered for Creekstone in light of the elder confirmation elections that were held on March 6 after the morning service. Here are my notes (elaboration on audio): It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention. That was true for the fencing industry during the days following the…
A Quiet Zone
I read this article and am wondering what it might look like to create quiet zones in life, maybe in my home, or at least somewhere? What do you think? Imagine a cell phone free zone. Actually, the United States has such a place. It’s called “The Quiet Zone.” Anyone driving west from Washington DC…
No Need to Explain: “I Invented It”
In 1969, in a science lab in New Jersey, Canadian physicist Willard Boyle and his colleagues invented the concept of an electronic eye. Using their knowledge of mathematics and the behaviour of light they provided the science behind digital cameras known as a charged-coupled device or CCD. The CCD technology revolutionized photography, as light could…
